THE CANCER CASE.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9813, 24 August 1897, Page 3

THE CANCER CASE.

TO THK BDITOR OP TH* PRBSS. Sir,—-For the medical profession generally I entertain feelings of almost unqualified admiration and respe.t. Its members give us their best skill, and are ready to come to the relief of suffering at any hour of the day or night. But in one respect they come short of the true dignity of their noble profession, they are still too much bound by the chains of '* professional etiquette;" and when an outsider, or a " quack," by some peculiar means happens on soirie secret of healing they do not possess they do not waste much courtesy on hira. They point out tlie improbability of a layman discovering anything where professional men have failed. Yet such cases are not unknown. In Ringer's "Therapeutics " it is stated that the use of capsicum in certain very painful affections was the secret of a quack who had long and successfully employed it, and who at length disclosed it to a doctor. The same work states that phosphorus had loug fallen into disuse till its signal success with homoeopathic practitioners (who are '' quacks" also) had restored it to favour. The lay mind thinks that doctors ought not to care one straw where healing comes from so long as the patient is benefited. This is the principle the late Dr. Prins advocated, and always acted on, as the following case will prove. One of his patients whom I knew, an old lady in very feeble health, suffered with severe cancer. Dr. Prins could give no hope of recovery, and very little of palliative treatment, as the patient's age and extreme feebleness precluded any operation. The friends applied to Mr Hullett, who was very reluctant to treat the case, as it was almost hopeless. Under strong pressure, however, he consented, and although no cure was effected owing to the patient's strength not lasting out, yet for many weeks she was almost or quite free from those agonising pains which make this so terrible a disease. But here is the point. When Dr. Prins was informed of all this just before death took place, he said that the friends were right in trying anything which seemed to promise relief, and that it was a pity he had not been informed of it, as he would have been quite willing to visit the patient, and attend to her general health while under the treatment. Such conduct was truly noble and disinterested, and I would trust that in it he is not without successors.—Yours, &c.,

R. W. Black,

Fendalton,